Staff

Melissa Choi, who has served as assistant director of MIT Lincoln Laboratory since 2019 and has decades of experience working across the lab’s different technical areas, has been named the next director of Lincoln Laboratory, reports Isabel Tehan for the Boston Business Journal. “Under Choi’s leadership, the lab will continue to focus on long-term development of defense systems,” writes Tehan, “as well as quick-moving prototyping, both with the goal of protecting the U.S. from advanced threats.” 

NBC News reporter Alex Koller spotlights Noubar Afeyan PhD '87 and the messages he shared as commencement speaker for the 2024 MIT graduating class. "I'm utterly unreasonable and an eternal optimist," said Afeyan, adding that to tackle improbable challenges having "a special kind of optimism" can help. 

Brandon Hanks, a software developer with MIT’s Department of Comparative Media Studies/Writing, speaks with Wall Street Journal reporter Sarah Needleman about how Gen Z is putting their own spin on the heart sign. Hanks notes that “it looks more difficult” to master than the Millennial version—“and it is!”   

Ara Mahar, a technical associate at the McGovern Institute, speaks with CBS News about what inspired their interest in kimonos – a traditional Japanese garment. “Mahar became so enamored [with the kimono] they moved to Japan to formally study it in 2016,” explains CBS. “Mahar became an expert, and moved back to Boston two years later. Mahar now gives demonstrations and lectures throughout the area.” 

Brian Mernoff, manager of the CommLab in the Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics, shares his excitement at having the opportunity to view the solar eclipse with Boston Globe reporter John Hilliard. “A total solar eclipse is a very different way to see the sun and the moon,” Mernoff notes. “You see a black disk in the sky, with all these wispy lines that are coming off the sun, and getting thrown off the edges. It’s just an incredible sight.”

Prof. Emeritus Donald Sadoway co-founded Boston Metal, an MIT startup that has developed a carbon-free steel manufacturing process, reports Amy Feldman for Forbes. “Boston Metal’s process – which uses an electricity conducting, molten-metal proof anode to liquify iron ore, separating the pure metal without harmful byproducts – allows factories to create carbon-free steel as long as they use a clean energy source, such as hydroelectric power,” explains Feldman. “It also can create steel from lower-grade ores rather than relying on scarce high-grade ones. That’s an important advantage in terms of both cost and availability compared to other methods of making green steel, according to the company.”

In a letter to the editor of The New York Times, Alfred Ironside, the MIT vice president for communications, addresses the necessary role staff play at MIT. “At MIT, the research and education enterprise requires far more to thrive than our outstanding faculty alone,” writes Ironside. He adds that the Institute’s staff are essential to “running a top-flight research organization where breakthrough discoveries and innovations provide continuous service to the nation.”

Fast Company reporter Adele Peters spotlights Boston Metal – an MIT startup that uses electrolysis to heat iron ore and create liquid steel without releasing carbon emissions. “If the process runs on renewable energy, the steel is zero-emissions,” explains Peters. “The same technique can be used to extract other valuable metals from mining waste.”

Robert Stoner, interim director of the MIT Energy Initiative, speaks with Boston Public Radio hosts Margery Eagan and Jim Braude to discuss the climate crisis and some solutions being developed at MIT. "You have to be [optimistic]," says Stoner. "I do feel there are technological pathways that we can go down and get there. Solar and wind and storage get us an awful long way. We have to make these things cheaper, and there are an awful lot of people at MIT and at other great universities, and many companies, hammering away at those problems."

Quaise Energy co-founder Carlos Araque BS '01 MS '02 speaks with PBS Energy Switch host Scott Tinker about the future of geothermal energy. [Geothermal is “truly everywhere so it’s not a resource uncertainty, like there is with oil and gas, there’s always heat, but the technological gap prevents us from getting to it,” says Araque. These gaps “are the one caveat in unlocking this resource for everybody.”

Research scientist Bryan Reimer speaks with The Ojo-Yoshida Report host Junko Yoshida about the future of the autonomous vehicle industry. “We cannot let the finances drive here,” explains Reimer. “We need to manage the finances to let society win over the long haul.”

Prof. John Goodenough, who shared the 2019 Nobel Prize in chemistry for his work developing the lithium-ion battery, has died at age 100, reports Jim Vertuno for the AP. Goodenough “began his career at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where his research laid the groundwork for development of random-access memory for the digital computer.”

Washington Post reporter Brian Murphy memorializes the life and work of Prof. John Goodenough, who worked at MIT Lincoln Laboratory for over 20 years. Goodenough was “an American scientist who shared a Nobel Prize for helping create the lithium-ion battery that powered the mobile tech revolution and provides the juice for electric cars, but who later raised worries about a design that relies on scarce natural resources,” writes Murphy.

New York Times reporter Robert D. McFadden highlights the work of Prof. John Goodenough, a scientist who worked at MIT's Lincoln Laboratory for over 20 years and played a “crucial role in developing the revolutionary lithium-ion battery” has died at age 100. “At MIT’s Lincoln Laboratory in the 1950s and ’60s, he was a member of teams that helped lay the groundwork for random access memory (RAM) in computers and developed plans for the nation’s first air defense system,” writes McFadden.

Latinx students were celebrated at the first MIT Latinx graduation celebration at the Media Lab on May 31, reports Arrman Kyaw for Diverse Issues in Higher Education. “It was an honor to plan the first Institute-wide Latinx graduation ceremony, a process that began over a year ago with the mission to recognize not only the academic achievements of our community but also this large milestone within our culture and heritage,” says Isabella Salinas ’23, president of the Latino Cultural Center.